Response to report of missing vulnerable teenager - West Midlands, April 2018

On 11 April 2018 West Midlands Police (WMP) received a missing person report for a 14-year-old girl. The girl was deemed as missing and the incident was graded as requiring a priority response. The incident was deferred until the following day due to resources being unavailable.

On the day following the report, a person walking a dog found a body in a local park, and this was matched to the report of the missing person.

The matter was referred to the IOPC by WMP as is usual when someone dies after any contact with the police.

We reviewed the actions of WMP contact centre staff in relation to the missing person enquiry to establish whether local and national policies and guidelines were complied with.

During the investigation there was an indication that a force policy was breached. We investigated the actions of a member of police staff as a subject of investigation. We obtained statements from witnesses and a written response from the subject of investigation.

We also reviewed the incident logs of previous reports relating to the missing person. During the review of these incidents a potential opportunity for learning was identified.

In December 2018 a 17-year-old youth was found guilty of the girl’s murder and we shared our final report with WMP.

We found no evidence to suggest that WMP may have caused or contributed to the girl’s death and no indication that any police officer or member of police staff may have committed a criminal offence or had a case to answer for misconduct.

We found that the performance of one member of police staff fell below what was expected and that this could be dealt with through management action. This was agreed by the WMP.